Ruled by the Rod (19 page)

Subsequently
we were sent for to that same study, where he read us a stern
lecture on the danger in which we had stood, having acted with
independence of men for many months, and decreed that we should
start our rehabilitation, and show a proper submission to the
master of the house, by submitting to a flogging that very night,
tired and weary though we were from the journey, and the trauma of
being uprooted from our home of so many years.

'It is best
you start in the manner in which you intend to continue,' he
assured us. 'A little fatigue will only make you more receptive to
the rod, and its curative powers.

'But first,'
he added, 'there are some small formalities to conclude, regarding
your income. You will have no need for funds of your own, since you
will be living under my roof, and I will make you such allowances
as are necessary from time to tine, for household expenses and any
strictly necessary items of feminine expenditure as may arise,
judging each application on its merits. You will, therefore, each
sign a note to the manager of our local bank, authorising him to
pay over to me such dividends and other income as it accrues.'

We could find
no argument with this reasonable request, although we had made
shift to run the old home for some months without male aid, and we
each signed a note as indicated, trusting to the learned judge to
correctly evaluate the validity of our requests for personal funds,
should the need arise. Often a man will see clearly that what a
woman thinks is necessary for her appearance or hygiene is, in
fact, nothing more than vanity or extravagance.

The business
concluded without delay, we turned our attention to that so
familiar armchair, in its new and unfamiliar surroundings. In fact,
the difference was not so great. The judge's sanctum was much like
that dark austere chamber that had been poor dear papa's place of
work and study. A largish room with heavy desk, bookcases and
leather furniture of suitable sombreness, and decorated in an
appropriately dark and brooding fashion, that was nicely calculated
to banish all levity from one's thoughts on entering, if indeed
there had been the slightest lightness of disposition among any of
us when summoned to that place of judgement and execution.

It was not so
crowded that it could not receive the familiar chair, the awesome
Spanish horse, and the cabinet, with its cargo of corrective
instruments, and still leave room for full free play of those same
rods and straps.

It was quite
like old times as, one by one, we bared our lower persons, mounted
the chair, our knees widespread by the spacing of the arms on which
we knelt, and lowered our heads to present our buttocks fully to
the judge and the formidable rod he had selected. It was one of the
more difficult canes papa had purchased for our maintenance, and I
found myself weeping tears of shame for my fear and humiliation
when having to spread my buttocks on the chair and, especially, at
the feeling of openness behind, where my rather plump and pouting
pudenda showed boldly between my parted thighs.

It was too
long since I had been made to abase myself in this manner, and it
showed. I was blubbering freely before even a stroke had fallen,
and writhed and sobbed under the rod as, three months before, I
never would have done.

By the third
stroke I positively howled. My hips weaved, seemingly of their own
volition. I could not control them, and the fourth also heard me
giving tongue, as that brutal cane fell across my unpractised
buttock, the welts now thick and dark on the previously pristine
surface. It crossed my mind, even in that extremity, that they
would probably never be wholly without mark again for the
indefinite future.

But the
thought did not persist long, driven out by the fifth cut, a
beastly stroke, somewhat lower than the rest, indeed, on the
gluteal fold itself, such a sensitive spot, even when used to
correction of this strength, unbearable when so ill-prepared. Once
more I howled and the rod returned, to sear me not a finger's
breadth below. In the position we adopted on the well spaced arms
of that dire chair, one was peculiarly vulnerable to a stroke like
that, on the thigh more than on the buttock, and it could be
excruciating. Could be and was on that occasion. I writhed and
sobbed without restraint.

When I had
quietened somewhat, rather than giving the order to dismiss and
dismount from the chair, the judge addressed me on the inadequacy
of my performance, and the need for me to do better. As an aid to
this rehabilitation, I was awarded two extra strokes, and promised
I would have the six to do over again if these were not taken with
sufficient stoicism. You may be sure I made neither sound nor
movement under the rod for those testing extras. The fear of having
to take more of the same was even greater than my distress at the
pain of the present visitations to my poor sore buttocks.

Though I hated
them at the time, when I was able to contemplate my aching buttocks
objectively, in the privacy of my bed, it was some small comfort to
know that I had made amends by taking them with better dignity. I
had not been called upon to relieve the judge's evil humours, since
only one sphincter sufficed, and Marion did the honours, as
befitted the eldest girl.

We had cast
ourselves upon the judge's charity. I mean, in the sense of caring
for our moral needs, our financial requirements were more than
satisfied by our father's legacy, at a time when the doctor was
abroad, spreading the gospel of his surgical treatments for
feminine ills and, by the time he returned, we were safely
installed in the judge's home, and settling down to our duties
there, benefiting from regular and unremitting discipline, that
kept us healthy in body and mind.

He did not
delay to visit his old friend, the judge, and with great
generosity, undertook to be our medical superintendent, as in the
days when we lived in papa's vicarage, and he had been a frequent
visitor.

Indeed, on the
occasion of his first visit to our new home, we were made to submit
to a full examination, to see how our bodies had fared in the
intervening months.

'The female
body is a complex mechanism,' he warned us. 'Liable to quickly lose
its tune if not properly exercised, and prone to develop strange
maladies if not kept under a strict regimen.'

We were
instructed to strip ourselves entirely, not even retaining the
corsets and restraints we seldom otherwise were without. We stood
in a line, arms at our sides, chins up, but eyes cast down so as
not to seem to be challenging our male superiors.

When the
doctor had given us an overall viewing, he called on each in turn
to get up on the heavy desk and lie back while he probed further.
When my turn came, I found the hardness and cold of the polished
wood strangely disturbing and, again, I had got out of the way of
allowing my body to be handled freely without shrinking. It was
further proof, if any were indeed needed, of the frailty of women,
and how far they will backslide if the reins are loosened even for
a moment. It only reinforced the wisdom of our mentors in putting
us back as quickly, and as strictly, as possible, into that moral
corset and stern rule in which we had flourished before.

The doctor's
probing was searching. First he greased his hand, and introduced
two fingers into my vagina, stretching, though not rupturing, the
hymen and seeking out the inner lining and the soft nose of my
cervix, where the neck of the womb intrudes on the vaginal tube. He
explored thoroughly, until I began to squirm at the discomfort and
prolonged tension induced by his manipulation.

He cautioned
me to stillness, but withdrew and examined the bud of my sexual
nerve, still very sensitive and active, despite the surgical
procedures to which he had subjected it some months before. He
murmured something about it needing further attention, at which I
could not suppress a small whimper of fear, and then bade me turn
onto my belly and draw up my knees under me in a frog-like
crouch.

The pose
served to throw up my buttocks, and I was even more exposed when he
made me part my knees widely, opening up the divide and letting the
cool air play on the pouting button of my anus. For since resuming
our service of the gentlemen's juices, I had found my nether
orifice to have once more become slightly swollen and inflamed,
being conscious of it at many times during the day, even when not
serving in the study, and always when answering a call of
nature.

While I had
been adjusting my position, he had freshly greased his hand and I
soon felt two fingers probing the rose of my sphincter. They
burrowed deep and were joined by a third, and then a fourth. By now
I was breathing hard, being hard put to it to maintain my pose
without flinching, so great was the pressure. He could only make
but little headway. He growled at me to loosen up and let him
enter, reinforcing his demands with several violent slaps of his
hard hand on my bare buttock. I concentrated all I could. The
sensation was unbelievable, totally overwhelming. I gasped and
groaned, writhed on his impaling fingers like an eel on a fork,
uttering sharp cries in a jagged stream of sound.

At last he
ceased his internal examination and withdrew, and I lay puffing and
blowing on the desktop for a minute or more, before I could regain
enough strength to descend and start to put my dress in order once
more.

And my sisters
had not fared any better. Where Marion had been spared quite such
as intrusive an examination of her rectum, she had been obliged to
submit to such a forceful stretching of her nether lips that tears
had come to her eyes, while Charlotte had not only endured an
internal examination, but had her nipples seized in forceps, and
drawn out until she bit her lip and moaned at the pain. It seemed a
severe way to treat tender female flesh, but doubtless the doctor
understood best what must be done.

As a result of
these medical explorations, we were prescribed a number of
treatments over and above our regular regime. In my own case, these
consisted of a series of hot oil enemas, taken twice a week, each
of two quarts, hot enough to almost scald, and held for fifteen
minutes before relief was allowed, on pain of unspecified but
fearful penalty if released sooner.

Marion was
made to stand, legs widely spaced, for thirty minutes at a time,
with small vices clamped to her nether lips, from each of which
depended two one pound weights. The ordeal was aggravated by her
being made to stand totally still, any movement causing the weights
to swing and clash, whereupon the time endured to date was ignored
and the thirty minutes calculated from the new starting point. She
seldom got free in less than an hour, and shrieked when, at last,
the clamps were withdrawn from her cringing flesh.

Charlotte was
subjected to a similar ordeal, but in her case a weight of two
pounds was attached to each nipple. At least she did not have to
maintain stillness to avoid clashing, since her breasts were widely
separated, but she nevertheless held herself mighty stiff to
mitigate the action on her stretched breasts and teats.

It was ten
weeks before the doctor decided that his treatments had done their
work, and that we might drop them from our routine; the physical
deterioration subsequent on our temporary deprivation of male
authority, dispersed by medicine as effectively as our mental
degeneration had been repaired by strict correction at the judge's
hand.

At about that
time, too, we had acquired a third guardian. During papa's
lifetime, we had had the benefit of the three principal pillars of
society; religion, medicine and the law. The last two we continued
to enjoy, but there was a vacancy for a religious mentor.

But not for
long.

The judge was
acquainted with a churchman, a bishop no less, who had lately
returned from the Far East, and been appointed suffragan to our
local diocese. He was invited to dine at the judge's home, and
after our very first meeting, undertook to see to the health of our
souls, as the doctor and judge took care of our bodies and
conduct.

We had only
been told that we might expect a guest for dinner, and you may
imagine our astonishment, mixed with hope and dread, to find a tall
austere figure, dressed in black apron and gaiters, the only relief
in his costume the white tabs at his neck, a purple sash about his
waist, and the gleaming jet of rows of tight buttons that ran down
his form-fitting gaiters from thigh to ankle, outlining muscular
calves that spoke of a strong body beneath his other regalia of
office.

After dinner
the judge announced that he would conduct his usual inquisition
into our state of moral health, and need for further discipline,
and invited the bishop to delay his departure in order to witness
how well we were cared for. Accordingly, we were subjected to our
normal catechism followed by penal correction on our cringing
buttocks, which we bared in the usual way despite the presence of
this senior churchman. We hoped our naked femaleness would not
offend him, but I fear he was struck down by that same affliction
that so troubled our guardians on these occasions, his body filled
with malignant juices, the pressure of which had to be relieved if
he was to remain hale.

As usual I was
the last in line to be judged and corrected and it was, therefore,
my freshly corrected buttocks, with their fifteen stinging welts,
that he seized in his steel-like grip, as he presented the
episcopal prong to my tight anal ring. He was indeed a mighty man
before the Lord, as the Good Book has it, and his massive member
drew a groan from my bitten lips as he forced himself into me.
Several painful minutes later I had progressed to loud strangled
grunts with every stroke he made, but consoled myself for my pain
with the thought, as he gave half-a-dozen last rapid drives and I
felt his juices explode in my belly, that I had performed a
necessary service for the Anglican church, a rite to whose urgency
the bishop's vigorous behaviour was ample testimony.